Bjaardker, you make very valid points. But let me express some viewpoints coming from a diehard PBA fan. The problem with the 05-06 season is only having the 4 bowlers on tv. This was done last season as well, and to combat the empty air time they added the skills challenge, which has already lived it's peak. Other attributes also. The same boring set designs with the crowd on the sides, Dave Ryan's medicore announcing , the same boring camera angles..etc.
Now for the 5 bowlers. As much as I want 5 bowlers on tv, it cannot and should not be done withthis format. The wild card was an unfair system. When they did it in 01-03, the player left in the round of 8 that lost but had the best match play record went onto tv as the 5th bowlers. The problem with that is one of those 4 bowlers that won thier round of 8 bracket gets screwed cause they have to bowl an extra match. Then in the next year of 03-04 they heard the complaints from fans and the pros so they changed it to the loser in the round of 8 that had the hightest pinfall from back in qualifying. That made it even more confusing and even a worse way to have a "wildcard match".
The only two ways of fairly getting 5 bowlers on tv is to either dump the whole bracket system and go back to round robin match play to a stepladder on tv.
The other idea that has been tossed around several times is go from a 64 man field to an 80 man field. You cut to 40 bowlers to bracket match play, to 20, to 10 then 5. Everyone fairly gets in.
